1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine with a sensor disposed in the vicinity of an insertion slot, and can avoid a guidepath from being blocked by a game medium.
2. Related Art
Coins and medals are used as a game medium for gaming machines. In addition, as with a gaming machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,974, an insertion opening to which the game medium is inserted and a hopper that retains and discharges the game medium are provided therein.
The game medium that is inserted from the insertion slot is required to be counted and tested for legitimacy. This processing is performed by a sensor.
While the insertion slot of the game medium is disposed at a position where a player can easily insert the game medium, the sensor and the hopper are generally disposed inside a cabinet independently.
For this reason, the insertion slot and the sensor, and the sensor and the hopper are connected by a guidepath, which guides the game medium.
However, in general, a variety of internal components are housed inside the gaming machine. Therefore, in order to dispose the guidepath while getting around these components, the guidepath necessarily has a long and complex-shaped pathway, which has because a cause for the game medium to block the pathway of the guidepath.
Given this, the present invention aims at providing a gaming machine in which the game medium does not block the guidepath.
In addition, since the hopper device has a large retaining tank in order to store a large number of game media, it is difficult to reduce size of the gaming machine. And if a display for playing a game becomes smaller as the size of the gaming machine is reduced, visibility of a display screen for a player is deteriorated.
Given this, the present invention aims at providing a gaming machine that can be efficiently installed without size reduction thereof.
On the other hand, a gaming machine are being equipped with a PTS (Player Tracking System) configured with a reader portion that reads a player card storing information such as a play history of a player, and a display unit that displays the information that is read by the reader portion. The PTS is disposed, for example, beside a display or the like so that a player card can be easily inserted and ejected, and so as to improve visibility of a display portion thereof, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,112,138.
However, since the PTS is disposed beside the display or the like, the gaming machine grows in size and it is difficult to reduce the size of the gaming machine. Particularly, a gaming machine for a table game, which has a display on an upper face of a cabinet thereof, grows in size by the size of the PTS.
In addition, the player card is sometimes used in a state of being fastened to a player with a string or the like. In such a case, the string or the like may hinder game operations and, depending on an insertion position of the card, may block the view of the player and deteriorate visibility of the display.
Given this, the present invention aims at providing a gaming machine in which a player card can be easily inserted and ejected and visibility of a display portion of a PTS is improved, and which can be efficiently arranged by size reduction thereof.
Here, a style of arrangement of gaming machines in a hall and the like includes various styles such as arranging the gaming machines back to back, arranging the gaming machines circularly with the back face side thereof inside, and the like. In each case, in order to arrange a plurality of gaming machines in a hall, the gaming machines are often arranged so that the back face side thereof is not visible to players.
However, gaming machines that execute a table game are sometimes installed in a semicircular arrangement, for example, around a dealer. In such a style of arrangement, the back face side of the gaming machine is in an exposed state, which is a cause of the deteriorated appearance thereof and spoils the atmosphere of the hall and the like.
Given this, the present invention aims at providing a gaming machine that can enhance a rendered effect in a hall regardless of the style of arrangement thereof.
Among such gaming machines, there are gaming machines with a display provided on an upper face side thereof, for example the gaming machine disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 2007/0026947. Such gaming machines are provided with a door on an upper face side of a cabinet, on which a display is disposed, and is openable and closable with respect to a cabinet main body.
In such a case, the gaming machine is often made short in height and provided with a display on a door on an upper face side. In addition, a liquid crystal display is often used as the display and the display tends to be larger in order to effectively show a rendered effect. However, since the door on the upper face side is made to be light in consideration of opening and closing thereof, and since a large sized display disposed on the door occupies a large part thereof, there has been a problem in that the structural strength of the door on the upper face side was weakened when being opened and closed.
On the other hand, in such a configuration, it is necessary to prevent a malicious user from forcing the door on the upper face side open and accessing the inside of the cabinet, since the inside of the cabinet can be easily accessed once the door on the upper face side is opened.
Given this, the present invention aims at providing a gaming machine that can prevent a player from forcing the door open, while ensuring the strength of the door on the upper face side.